Members of the Block Boyz, from left, Al, Adrian E., Be and Young Chado, created a YouTube video about swangers, a type of wire rim that sticks out near the center.﻿

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

Members of the Block Boyz, from left, Al, Adrian E., Be and Young...

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Charissa Powell, 3, was shot and killed in this car, fitted with rims, in March. Her father reported that men approached the vehicle and demanded the keys, and before he could get the family out of the car, the attackers opened fire.﻿

Photo: Eric Kayne, Chronicle

Charissa Powell, 3, was shot and killed in this car, fitted with...

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A worker at Rollo's Tires & Wheels on Bissonnet in Houston tightens the wheel lock on a brand-new 22-inch chrome wheel for a customer earlier this month.

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

A worker at Rollo's Tires & Wheels on Bissonnet in Houston tightens...

Shiny, unmistakable and a little strange, the custom wire wheels of choice on some of Houston's toughest streets are the star attraction of whatever they're beneath, be it Benz or Bentley, certified slab or laughable junker.

No doubt they demand attention. They are the stuff of local legend and lore, of lust and commerce at its most American, and most dangerous. Poking out 6 inches or more from the hub like a chrome tepee frame, they sing a siren's song, and young men hear it droning.

For more than two decades these unconventional rims, going by nicknames like swangers, elbows and pokes, have been coveted as none other by the car enthusiasts in Houston's poor black neighborhoods.

Those who live there, who ride there, who pay attention to what rolls down the streets, are fully aware of their allure. They also know well the mayhem that sometimes comes from possessing something so desirable.

“They have created an adverse culture of killing,” said community activist Quanell X.

DeAndre Elliott heard the siren and could not resist, and so his 1993 Buick Park Avenue was suitably equipped.

If Elliott had concern for his safety, it was not enough to overcome the pride in ownership. A junior at Worthing High School, he had no time for worry. He'd been through the bad times, losing his mother at an early age, and come through the other side.

He was the popular star running back of the football team. He had a girlfriend. He had something in short supply in the grittiest neighborhoods — hope — and of course he had that car painted a fresh blue-green and finished off with elbows and white-walled Vogues, the only tire worthy of pairing with such expensive rims.

Elliott died Nov. 19 on his girlfriend's doorstep. He was 17. The only motive police could determine for the shooting was robbery: The assailant wanted Elliott's car, which is to say his rims. The shooter rode off in it as Elliott lay dying.

‘But … you still want 'em'

“I don't care if my kids are 30; they ain't gonna have these on their car,” said music producer Anthony Scott, a record company owner who produced the Block Boyz's YouTube project modestly titled Official Riding Swangas Video.

In another breath, however, he does not deny the appeal. “You hate all the violence that is done because of them, but inside you still want 'em, you know?”

If Houston's rappers are quick to praise the rims, they are just as eager to cite the risk, if one bothers to listen. Then again, the acknowledged, danger may add to the appeal, lessening the intrusion of imitators and wannabes. If you roll on swangers, you roll ready. Self-defense is a required add-on to the purchase price of $2,000 or more.

“The police will never admit it, but if they want to catch young black men with guns, they'll stop a car with elbows and Vogues because they know the young men will have guns,” Quanell X said.

It's mostly a Texas thing, the pursuit of the poke, but the story of rim-inspired violence has been written and rewritten in most major cities around the country. Up north, “spinners” had their appeal, admired for their continuing movement when the car stops. In greater Miami, the rimjackers have killed for Vogues atop “Trus,” a different sort of wire wheel. In southern California, it's Dayton wire wheels, slang translation “danas,” made famous by Snoop Dogg. Elbows might get you laughed at in Los Angeles. It takes danas to get you shot.

To many rimjackers, the wheels are nothing more than a fungible commodity, a high-demand item that can be quickly turned into cash. To others, they are the prize in and of themselves, representing a quick ticket to acceptance.

“You have individuals who don't have other options to get respect and get achievement in our society,” said Luis Salinas, a University of Houston sociologist and criminologist. “Instead, they focus on one little item, and they do what they have to do to get it. They may not have a good home or anything else, but they can have a set of killer rims.”

A young victim

There may be no official crime category for rim-related murders, but they are no rarity.

Last month it was Charissa Powell's turn to suffer the consequence of thug lust when men showed up in a northside apartment parking lot with a gun and a demand.

Before her father could get his family out of the car, she was shot and killed. She was 3 years old.

“Only they know what they were going to do with them,” said Charissa's mother, Victavia Milton. “It's just sad that my little girl had to die for it. People are taking other people's lives for this stuff, and it's just not worth it.”

As Air Jordans redefined the basketball shoe — and themselves occasionally became the subject of violent acquisition — the proper custom rims turn a car into a statement.

Rims are status, simple and undisputed. Put some swangers on a restored beauty with candy paint and a thumping bass, and you've got a major piece of street envy.

Put them on anything, be it truck or minivan, and it's an automatic step up in class.

For the young, getting the first set can be a rite of passage, one steeped in decades of local culture. And there's more than hype to the company's slogan, “If You Ain't Pokin' ... You Must Be Jokin'.”

These 30-spoke wire wheels have been in demand in parts of Houston since they first appeared on Cadillacs in 1983 and 1984, hence the other nickname, '83s and '84s. They were soon discontinued by Cragar, the manufacturer. But last year a California company called Texan Wire Wheels reintroduced them in several sizes and models, including the larger Gorilla Pokes. The company pays local rappers to do ads and write street anthems in which the wheels are prominently featured.

But the dark truth is never far away. And that's the point that Quanell X was trying to get to as he stood before a ragged semicircle of young black men on a recent afternoon and began to pepper them with questions.

They had showed up at his request to show off their cars.

“How many of you would put your mama and your baby in this car?” he asked.

A couple of men raised their hands, one offering an almost apologetic explanation: “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“How many would ride one-deep at night in your car?” he asked, meaning driving alone.

No hands.

“How many of you would be strapped?”

Every hand went up.

Unspoken rules

There are rules of a sort for rolling on swangers. Street rules, written nowhere but known to many.

Besides the advantage of numbers and enough firepower to make it meaningful, you are careful where you park and careful about women who approach you in clubs with interest that comes a little too easy.

Too often the careless find themselves marks for an affectionate offer that ends with a quick phone call to an associate with a gun.

Therein lies the eternal paradox of the poke. You get them to be noticed, but it's getting noticed that makes you a target.

“This has been going on for 20 years,” said Quanell X, who makes a point of briefing the uninitiated on the rules of the road. “In 1991, they shot up my brother's car and chased him. He finally ditched it and ran away, and when police found the car the only thing missing was the rims.”

Every car customizing subculture has its required elements, and wheels are inevitably a major part, so much so that rim sales total more than $3 billion a year, according to the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association.

The hot-rodders are often satisfied with classic moon wheels while the low riders typically opt for small and more conventional wire rims. The street racers, all fast and furious in souped-up Japanese imports, need appropriately lightweight tuner racing wheels.

Hip-hop culture has its own car fetish, all of it falling under the general label of “urban vehicles.”

They can run from tricked-out SUVs on 20-inch “dubs” to old sedans on oversized wheels (referred to as “donks”) known to Houston's own slabs, a nickname born of an acronym — “slow, loud and bangin'.”

The true slab is usually an older American sedan or convertible. Many slabs boast a meticulously redone interior, and all feature serious sound systems with massive woofers in the trunk, and elbows and Vogues.

In theory, a sweet looking slab would be just as fine on any set of decent wheels: a nice set of racing mags, say, or some luxe Giovannas or even a more toned-down set of wire rims.

But no elbows means no slab. Simple as that, anyone will tell you. People would wonder about you. And they would laugh.